


Like The Moon, A Pearl

by theweddingofthefoxes



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Blowjobs, M/M, Sex Work, flaring tempers, force mind tricks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 01:30:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13330614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theweddingofthefoxes/pseuds/theweddingofthefoxes
Summary: Fill for this Kylux Hard Kinks prompt: "AU where Hux isn't a General of the FO. He's a high demand escort at Canto Bight. Possibly FO property, but expensive property that can be borrowed by men, women and all else of various backgrounds. Whoever pays for him can do whatever they want with him, so long as they don't leave any lasting marks. When Kylo Ren is sent to Canto Bight he's disgusted by the frivolity and gaudiness. The only bright spot is the redhead he sees in the crowd, often embraced by someone's appendage. Kylo needs to get to know him, personally and physically."





	Like The Moon, A Pearl

_There are rumors about who he is, what he is. It is said he has some unimaginable fortune hidden away, that a night with him could bankrupt an army. He is easy to find and almost impossible to afford, and those who can have remained tight-lipped on how it went, what they did, what he said to them. It is said that he changes those who pay for his time. There are rumors that he is the bastard child of an imperial somebody, and those who can see in color can guess who they mean, but it is unconfirmed, though it’d make sense, wouldn’t it? Some unwanted child, cast aside, forced to reinvent himself as a splendid new creature that could pay in cash for a star destroyer the way others could buy a fruit at a market stall. If he chose to do so._

_But he lives in comfort, here, like a spoiled pet, napping on satin pillows and eating bites from some indulger’s hand. Even if the doors were flung wide open, he’d never leave._  


* * *

  
Kylo Ren had no one to blame but himself for this one, and that made it sting even more. He didn’t trust anyone else to perform these types of negotiations, not the brass that just stupidly repeated after him like trained birds, not the other Knights of Ren, and who did that leave but Kylo Ren himself? “If you want something done right,” his father had once told him, back a millennia or two ago, “You’ve gotta do it yourself.” And so it was. And he hated it.

Hated that he had to come _here_ , to Canto Bight. If asked, he would say he had come to secure the assets of the First Order, to ensure quality munitions, to acquire the latest technology before the First Order’s enemies could pounce on it. A better word, but a word he despised, was _network_. The thought of having to come and dicker with these slimy, disloyal salespeople filled him with a black rage, but sending anyone else to do it was out of the question. So here he was, in a small side room in the casino, just off the main floor. The closed door only somewhat muffled out the deafening chatter and sounds of the machines plinking away. 

“Have you come on behalf of Supreme Leader Snoke?”

“Snoke is dead,” Ren said curtly. “Murdered by scavenger trash, I’m told. His apprentice has succeeded him as Supreme Leader.”

Ren had deemed it unnecessary to reveal any of his identities to the woman who has a newly-developed type of cloaking device to sell the First Order. It was safer and quicker and less messy to pretend he was his own fictitious right-hand man, and if anyone wasn’t sure if they’ve heard of him, a little dose of the Force tended to be convincing. “My condolences to the Order, Commander Anak,” the woman said, sounding entirely unaffected. “If it’s any small reassurance, know that this technology will ensure the continued safety of the new Supreme Leader…”

The negotiations were brief. This was the main reason Ren wanted to come himself. He was able to barrel through these with brutal efficiency and with a few Force tricks. _Is any game in this casino more exhausting?_ This is what he kept asking himself as they spoke, while refusing any food or drinks and stoically hating the jokes she kept slathering onto her explanations. 

“It’s been a pleasure doing business, Commander,” she finally told him. He practically bolted out of the room the moment the receipts had loaded onto his data pad, but he stopped, forced himself not to sigh, when she continued. “I do appreciate having friends in high places, you know. It’d be remiss of me to not show my appreciation in some small way….”

Years of wearing a mask made Ren careless with his facial expressions, and he had to grit his teeth in order to not show his irritation at being held up. “Yes?”

She was holding some odd-looking coins in her hand -- no, chips, he realized, five of them with different credit values embossed in a shiny blue metal. Immediately he was able to tell that they were worth an enormous amount, but now that she had a plum deal with the First Order, she could afford to be generous. “I always provide those who work with me a few rounds on me. As a token of thanks.” She chuckled. “No pun intended.”

Ren strode forward and took the chips, not quite snatching but not hesitating, either. He wanted to tell her he didn’t intend on wasting another moment in this crowded, blinding-gold place -- memories of being Ben, of feeling panicky and trapped in tightly-packed upper-crust places like this, at his mother’s knee, soured his stomach like a slurp of bitter tea might. But. Chips were almost free money, and if he could find a game that involved guessing the intentions of others, it was practically assured. More money. More weapons. Improved odds of success.

And if he lost it all, well. It wasn’t coming out of his own pocket, and the _Silencer_ was waiting. 

He tucked the chips into the pocket of the First Order uniform he'd had made and made his way back out into the cavernous floor of the casino, keeping his head up and his shoulders squared. There was no way he’d let his ears go exposed, but he had tied his hair into a stubby knot at the base of his neck, giving him a more polished look while keeping them hidden. No one outside his family had seen Ben in years, but he found himself wondering if anyone might recognize the vestiges of Han in his face -- after all, surely a number of the guests here had made their fortunes in ways that might have made them a friend or an enemy of his father’s. But if anyone did, no one said anything about it. 

He remembered a few of the more advanced games from his oldest life, ones with lots of rules and lots of exceptions, but after stalking through the casino for a few minutes, he found himself standing before a simple one. Childishly simple, really. This version of it was far more luxurious than the one he would play with his father -- Han had used drinking cups and a palm-sized piece of candy, which Ben would be allowed to eat if he guessed correctly, while the casino uses delicate porcelain lids and a pearl the size of an eyeball. But the rules were the same. The prize was placed under one of three covers, which were quickly moved around. The player must choose the correct cover in order to win.

“How much would you like to bet?” asked the three-armed creature running this table. 

For the first time that day, Ren found himself suppressing a smile instead of a snarl.

He bet two of the five chips the weapons merchant had gifted him, knowing full well that they were worth more than most people in the galaxy had ever had in their entire lives. Double or nothing. The creature placed a palm on each of the lids and began to switch them more rapidly than any human being could follow, trading their positions ten times in the span of a breath. Ren gave the pretense of following along, ignoring another guest who had come to watch the display, keeping his eyes on the whirling lids, even though he had long lost track of which one contained the pearl. It didn’t matter. It only mattered when the movement stopped and the runner of the game gave him a blank, polite look. That was when Ren was able to hear it thinking.

“The center,” Ren said.

The creature lifted the center lid with one hand, and sure enough, there was the pearl, shining gauzily under the casino lights. It used its free hands to give Ren a genteel, soft round of applause. The person who had come to watch laughed, clearly impressed, and Ren turned to look at him for the first time. 

There was a great deal to take in, but what struck Ren immediately was the color of his hair -- not auburn or strawberry blonde, and not the warning-red of Ren’s kyber crystal that could be achieved with dye. It was a true, bright orange, and the paleness of his eyelashes confirmed that it was real, it was natural. He was dressed all in black and gold, understated but fine. A pendant in the shape of a full moon lay at his throat. He’d been staring openly at Ren and made no attempt to look away once Ren turned to him. The man’s eyes were a strange sea color, and they were full of mischievous light as he reached forward to point at the revealed pearl. “How did you do that?”

“Lucky guess,” Ren answered. 

“Then I suppose you couldn’t do it twice.”

“Would you like to make another bet of double or nothing?” the creature asked. 

The man who had been watching cocked his head and smiled. 

Ren nodded, held up two fingers. “Double or nothing, yes.”

The creature placed the lid down over the pearl and again, the lids went spinning. Knowing he was showing off for this stranger now, Ren exaggerated his look of concentration, even though all that was going through his head at that moment was how to make him _stay_ , how to get the stranger to keep talking to him. When the lids stopped, Ren hesitated for exactly one second, _one-one-thousand_ , then said, “That one. My far right.”

The stranger leaned in, anticipatory. 

“Congratulations,” the creature intoned, picking up the lid and giving a rote little series of claps once again. “Would you like to play again? Double or nothing?”

Ren could easily go all night, and make enough money to bankrupt the place. But that would be suspicious and it would get boring, especially when he clearly had other games to play now. “That’s all right. I won’t press my luck.”

The stranger gave another laugh, his eyes on the chips that the game runner was handing to Ren. Just as Ren had hoped, the man fell in step behind him as he walked away from the table. “Where are you going next?” 

“Depends on where you’re willing to follow me.” This came out bolder than Ren intended -- he really did mean which table, which game, but there was a higher implication, one that Ren didn’t exactly regret. As the Supreme Leader, he had no one to answer to, no ferocious chaperone to keep him from tarrying on his task. It felt almost naughty, running off with someone at a casino...

“I don’t believe my date for the evening would approve of me following you off the floor,” the man teased, and Ren bristled, making no secret of his displeasure at that. He suspected that was exactly what the stranger wanted. 

“Your _date_? Why isn’t your date with you now?”

The man shrugged, languid. “He’s already paid for my time, he can do with it as he likes. If he wants to waste it, that’s his business.”

This statement was as deliberate as could be -- this man was not a wealthy tourist idling away his fortune on the casino floor but an escort. And one on the clock, to boot. The stranger gave him a long look as he waited for Ren to reply. 

“And so you give me your time for free,” Ren finally answered.

“A free trial. If you’re not interested…”

“Do you normally pick up new clients while you’re already with old ones?”

“He should have kept a better eye on me, shouldn’t he?”

Ren found himself resolute, all of a sudden, gripping his quadrupled winnings hard enough that he thought he’d crack the chips. “Take me to your date. I want to speak to him.”

The stranger smiled lazily, as if the thought of Ren getting into a fight with some unsuspecting idiot whose lust for cash had outweighed his lust for flesh amused him more than he wanted to show. “All right.”

He -- the date-- was just getting up from a poker table when the two of them approached, a plain fellow with a sweaty brow who had clearly just escaped from his last game with a little bit of money yet unlost. “Oh--there you are, who’s….?”

Ren’s voice wasn’t loud, but his words came out with the striking clarity of a deep-toned bell, the hand that wasn’t clasping the chips held stiffly at his side, fingers bent: “You will relinquish any claim you believe you have over this man. You will not be bothered that he chooses to spend his time with anyone else. You will not ask for your money back.”

The plain man blinked rapidly, like he’d just stepped out into the daylight from a dark room. “Hux, well...thank you very much for spending time with me this evening. It was lovely, wasn’t it? I suppose I need to get going.”

The escort, Hux, coughed delicately into his fist, no doubt to try and hide his look of surprise. “Thank you,” he answered. “I appreciate it. You know where to find me, if you come back to Canto Bight.”

With that, Ren moved onward, this time knowing for certain that Hux would follow. 

He didn’t stop walking until he had reached the edge of the casino floor, near the towers of elevators up to the hotel rooms, and then he turned to face his new companion. “All right,” he said, taking Hux’s hand and placing all of the chips he’d won from the guessing game in it. “What does this get me?”

Amusement flickered in Hux’s face. “Most people have these converted to credits first.”

“You can do that just as easily. Take them or don’t.” 

He was a good enough judge of character to know that Hux would do just as he wanted and close his fingers around the pile of chips, no Force nudging required.  
“What should I call you?” Hux asked. Ren didn’t fail to notice that he did not ask what his name was. 

“Commander Anak.”

“Why don’t we go upstairs, Commander?”  


* * *

Hux’s space was on the eighth floor, decorated in the same blacks and golds that Hux himself was. Vases stuffed with white roses sat on each of the little tables that flanked the bed, and another sat on the counter in the adjoining refresher, the only things in the room paler than Hux. Ren suspected, walking in, that it was not the place where Hux actually lived -- it seemed too clean, there were no personal items anywhere, no tokens from friends or lovers, no closet stuffed with sumptuous clothes, no dirty laundry or snack wrappers or ashtray. This was the idea of a place where an expensive escort would live, a background that this red-haired paper doll could be placed against.

Ren used just the barest brush of the Force -- he didn’t want to get the actual location, he just wanted to know for sure it existed -- to glance inside Hux’s head and see where he really lived. A smaller space, a full bed instead of a king. A bedside table crammed with treasures, gifts from all over the galaxy, a cat curled up on a blanket that had fallen to the floor. 

“You’re staring.”

Ren blinked.

“I thought you might like it.”

“I’m stared at too often to be flattered by it.” Hux sat down on the bed, looking up at Ren as he neatly unlaced his shoes. “Tell me about yourself, Commander Anak of the First Order.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Well.” Hux smiled, kicking the shoes aside. “What are your appetites like?”

“Depends on what I can get.”

“Now, or in general?”

“Focus on the now.”

Hux’s smile widened. 

“Of course.” He patted the space beside him on the end of the bed, indicating that Ren sit. “For what you’ve given me, I would be happy to blow you. If that’s not the sort of thing that appeals to you, I can think of something else.”

“Do I get to touch you?”

Something huge and prideful flashed in Hux’s eyes as Ren came to sit down next to him. After a moment, he replied, “Nobody will ever touch me.”

“What?”

“You heard me.” Hux laughed prettily, drawing himself to his feet the moment Ren settled down. He shrugged his way out of the heavy gold-trimmed tunic he’d been wearing, so he was down to a silky black undershirt and leggings, and bare feet that sank deep into the soft black carpet. “I do all of the touching.”

“It might be nice to be touched.”

Ren was painting some lazy, hungry fantasies in his head of stealing this escort away, keeping him in his chambers for himself. The cat, he’d want to take the cat….that could be arranged…

Already, he was thinking this way. 

“It might. Do you think you’re my white knight, then?” Hux laughed, settling himself down between Ren’s legs, running his hands up the sharp crease of the trousers. “The dashing commander who will leave me heartsick when he returns to his ship? Leave me wishing he’d let him touch?”

Ren’s anger came over him faster than a fatal fever, and he squeezed his hand into a fist. “I’m not _paying_ you to make fun of me!” he shouted, and the two vases on the bedside tables exploded, sending shards of pottery and white petals all over. Hux bolted to his feet, his jaw clenched.

“You,” he said, and there was such steel in that one word -- all pretense of play was gone now, and Ren was now looking into the eyes of someone who had been canny and cutthroat enough to succeed on this miserable planet. “You’re no First Order commander.”

Ren said nothing. He still hadn’t bothered to put his knees back together and so he sat there, spread absurdly. 

“You’re Kylo Ren.”

“How did you know that?”

“I’m not going to tell anyone,” Hux said, almost grumbling. “You do have a reputation. And no one else associated with the First Order can do--can do that.”

“That you know of.”

Hux thought, but did not say -- but thought so loudly that Ren couldn’t avoid hearing it -- that his face, combined with his display of power and his approximate age, had made it all fit together. Surely he didn’t want to offend Ren again by bringing up estranged family members. Instead he said, in that same grumble, “You already admitted it. You’ll have to forgive me. Clearly you’ve already seen that I prefer to do and say as I please.”

Ren snorted. “Why do people pay so much to spend a night with someone who acts like you do?” he asked. He didn’t mean it cruelly, exactly, he felt more petulant than anything else. And curious. Why would anybody go broke trying to win the affection of this mocking, fair-weather creature?

But Hux just grinned and answered, “You’ll soon find out, won’t you?”

And Ren remembered just why he had been compelled to force the man who had paid for Hux before him to relinquish his claim. 

Hux took up his position on his knees once again, touching with both hands again, gentler this time. “I didn’t mean to upset you,” he said, in a voice so soft that Ren allowed himself to believe it. _Most likely he just wants a satisfied customer, especially now that he’s had a taste of what I can do._ But the way Hux looked up at him as he reached for Ren’s belt was so piercing that Ren found himself suddenly responsive. “I would like to be touched, someday. When I decide. And we’ve only just met, Kylo Ren.”

“It hasn’t stopped you from….” Ren lifted his hips to allow Hux to pry his trousers and underthings down, pull them all the way off so they were out of the way. “From this.”

“You’ve paid me handsomely, and I made the offer.”

“What could I pay you to touch you?”

Hux gave a humming little laugh as he leaned in, adjusting his position to make sure he’d be comfortable as he began his task. He took it slow, kissing the insides of Ren’s thigh, nosing closer and closer to the swell of Ren’s erection as he thought about his answer. “Not casino money,” he said, licking a stripe up Ren’s length to make him shiver. “Can you pay in power, Kylo Ren? Maybe my own star destroyer.”

Ren wasn’t hiding his gasps, his moans, but he managed to ask, in response, “What would you need with that?”

“You won’t be surprised to learn I have enemies out in the wide galaxy.”

“Let me take care of them. Let me crush them.” Ren’s head fell to the side, the hair that had come loose from the low ponytail hanging in his face. What was he doing, making such hasty promises to someone he’d paid to fuck around with? But every time he closed his eyes, he could still see the haunting light in Hux’s eyes. He practically snarled as Hux took him in his mouth, dug his hands into the silky black bedding. “You could live on my warship and I’d wipe this planet from the night sky, if you asked me to--fuck, that’s--”

This, it seemed, was what served as dirty talk for Hux, and they only seemed to encourage him to take his task even more seriously. _Who wronged him? Somebody important…?_ The thought dissolved away as pleasure took its place. He allowed himself an inhale and an exhale, a moan, louder than the last one, before continuing. “And if anyone came for you, I’d deal with them, and I don’t mean like the man downstairs…”

Hux didn’t break his rhythm -- still taking Ren’s full length with practiced speed and force -- but he reached out with one hand and took one of Ren’s, placed it on his own head. His thoughts radiated out in a clear command. _Pull my hair._

An apology, in its own way. 

An offer, in a more obvious way. Ren, it seemed, was the exception to nobody-will-ever-touch-me.

That in itself nearly pushed Ren over the edge, but the way Hux’s hair looked when it was mussed was what did. 

Hux was too experienced to gag, and so the only sound that carried through the room when Ren came was his own groan of pleasure. He was relieved that Hux let him down gently from the high, rather than spitting and stalking off, having completed his duty. Instead, Hux returned to kissing Ren’s thigh, almost in a fond way, or maybe that was just Ren being hopeful. At last he spoke. 

“You’ll laugh at me, but I believed every word you said.”

He was toying with the moon pendant around his neck, smiling that private smile again.

“Did you, now?”

“You can wash up in the refresher, whenever you want. I’m not in any hurry.” He peered around to the side of the bed, where the broken pieces of the vase lay, the carpet beneath the table soaked. “What do you plan to do about the flowers?”

Ren shrugged. He didn’t feel like moving any more than to grab his cast-off underpants with his toes and pull them on. “Take them with you. Come join me.”

Hux had scooped up a handful of petals that had scattered on the floor. “I have loose ends to tie up, Kylo Ren.”

“What kind of loose ends?”

“Ones I’d like to forget about if you’re serious.”

Ren was tempted to skim through Hux’s thoughts, but he resisted the urge. Maybe he didn’t want to know whatever it was that Hux was trying to forget. Hux walked back over to Ren, standing between his legs again, but instead of kneeling he scattered the petals over Ren’s bare stomach. “I want you to go back to the First Order. And the next time your business brings you to Canto Bight, I’ll be ready.”

“Hux…”

“I won’t be whisked away from everything I’ve accomplished only to be kicked out when you grow tired of me. I’m tired of people being tired of me.” He looked sad for a moment, but then brightened. “So. Return, go back to where you belong. For the time being.” He traced his finger among the petals, up Ren’s belly to his chest. “We’ll see each other again.”  
“How do I know you’ll be waiting?” Ren asked.

“After all those promises you made me? Here I thought you really were some kind of knight from a story.” Hux reached with both hands behind his neck and unclasped the full moon necklace. “I might as well romanticize it further. I want this back, you understand. And I expect to get it back when you return. But for the time being, well, you can have it and reminisce about the best blowjob you’ve ever paid for.”

He placed it on Ren’s chest, on top of the petals, and brushed a lock of hair out of Ren’s eyes. 

“How long do you think it’ll be?”

Ren turned the pendant over in his hand, admiring the way it shone in the low light. 

“Soon.”

There’s no way for Ren to know this, after he did eventually leave and made his way back to the First Order fleet with new cloaking technology and a promise from an escort, but as soon as Hux was alone, he pressed the button for the cleaning droid to come fix up the room, soak up the water out of the carpets, and made his way back to the elevator with a handful of stolen petals, back to the space no client of his had ever seen in real life, and buried his face in the tummy of his cat, who had come to snuggle up with him in bed, thinking that this time, maybe this time, everything would really be different if he listened to a promise that had been made.

**Author's Note:**

> Let's ring in 2018 with a KHK fill! This was one I was really excited about, and I hope you enjoy!


End file.
